


Warm You Up

by startrekkingaroundasgard



Series: 31 Days of Ficmas 2020 [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 31 Days of Ficmas, Angst, Blizzards & Snowstorms, F/F, F/M, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Jodie Whittaker is The Master (Doctor Who), Roleswap, Rope Bondage, Sickfic, Sort Of, Suggestive Themes, Swords, gender neutral reader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27857745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekkingaroundasgard/pseuds/startrekkingaroundasgard
Summary: The Master goes out into a blizzard to find the reader and nurses them back to health.
Relationships: The Master (Doctor Who)/Reader
Series: 31 Days of Ficmas 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2035468
Kudos: 23





	Warm You Up

Twenty minutes. The Master been very clear about it. You had twenty minutes to wander around on your own, enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the forest as she fixed a problem with the engine and then return. That was two hours ago and still you weren’t back.

Something had to be wrong. You weren’t stupid enough to test her patience this far. No. It was one of the many reasons she liked you; you accepted her judgement as better and did as you were told. So where were you? Images of your broken and bleeding body filled her mind, ignited a terrifying fear inside her.

The Master launched the hypo-spanner against the wall, angry at her own treacherous thoughts. You were fine. You had to be. She’d picked this planet as a pit stop because it was safe. There were no indigenous populations to do you harm, only beautiful trees that stretched up into the heavens and sparkled in the bioluminescence of the algae that coated the ground. She’d even double checked on the scanners to make certain that there were no other life signs in the area. You were safe. She’d made sure of it.

And yet… That doubt crept into her mind once again. It was such a nauseating feeling. This uncertainty, this fear. How did you cope with it all the time? It made her want to vomit. Or blow something up. That usually helped. But not even the thought of an antimatter explosion could bring a smile to her face though as a thousand and three new scenarios raced through her mind, all detailing your disappearance in grisly detail.

Grabbing her sword at the door, ready to slay any creature that dared to do you harm, she stepped out of the TARDIS doors - straight into a blizzard. She stumbled back inside and pulled a thick, fluffy coat around her, staring out into the swirling mass of white with a frown.

This wasn’t right. It couldn’t be. She’d landed in the height of spring, perfectly tepid for your feeble human body. It had to be the fault of the broken circuits in the TARDIS. Everything had seemed fine when you first arrived. There was no way she’d read the scanners wrong.

The blizzard could only have come on while you were out exploring. You made stupid decisions, put yourself at risk for her all the time, but you would have come back inside instead of traipsing out into the thick sheet of snow. The Master paused. She blocked out your annoyingly cheery attitude at times but she was 100% certain that you had simply waved goodbye and left in the same thin clothes you’d worn to the beach on Jalakaka. You were out here, alone, without so much as a coat to protect you.

Her hearts beat furiously in her chest as The Master ploughed through the thick snow. Exertion, the physical response to a hostile environment. Absolutely nothing to do with the knot of worry and guilt that sat heavily on her chest. Definitely not that. There was no need for her to panic because she’d find you, get you back to the TARDIS and everything would be find. Nothing to worry about at all.

The Master closed her eyes and focused on you, on your bright smile and terrible fashion sense and the warmth in your smile as you watched her destroy a fleet of ships with one single word. At first, there was nothing. She was met with absolute, telepathic silence.

She’d lost you.

Then, right on the edges of her conscience, she felt a tiny blip, a distant and desperate cry for help.

Feet leading her in the right direction, The Master ran through the snowstorm towards your weak presence. The small icy drops scratched her cheeks, the freezing wind biting as she raced on. It grew harder to continue with each step, almost as if the planet itself were draining her energy, but she was powered by something far stronger. In the history of the universe, nothing had yet been able to stop her when she was consumed by such rage.

The Master fell to her knees when she found you, buried beneath a layer of snow. Your lips were blue, your body curled in on itself. Her fingers trembling – and not from the cold – she pressed them to your neck and breathed a shaky sigh of relief. You still had a pulse. You were alive. For now.

Not willing to waste another moment, The Master freed you from the freezing cocoon you had built yourself and frowned. Normally, she’d have been happy to see you without a shirt. Today, it left her feeling sick. Severe hypothermia in humans often led to them removing their clothes, paradoxical undressing. She was lucky she’d found you when she did. Much longer and it would have been too later.

She removed her fluffy coat and wrapped it around you, capable of managing her own internal temperature well enough to avoid frostbite. At least long enough to get back to the TARDIS, anyway.

You were a dead weight in her arms and she moaned the entire way back to the ship. “You are so stupid, sometimes! You should have come straight back the moment it begun to snow. Humans aren’t capable of surviving in this! You could have died, for god sake, and then what would I have done?”

The Master took you directly to the bathroom where she set you down in the tub. She ran warm water and stripped you of your frozen clothes. As the water level climbed up the bath, she massaged your arms and legs, pressed her thumbs deeply into your flesh to try and get the blood flowing again.

You were stable but still in a terrible condition. The Master propped you up in the warm water, created a quick harness with your favourite ropes to stop you from slipping and drowning while she ducked out to find something to help you better. Even though the situation was dire, she couldn’t help but swirl her fingers across your wrists, to make pretty knots and admire the colour of the rope against your skin.

“Focus,” she hissed. Staring down at your unconscious body as she wiped her hands dry on her trousers, The Master sighed. You were so pathetic and small. So easy to break. It had never bothered her before, hell it was half the fun of keeping you around, but only now did she realise what a dangerous position it left you in. “I’ll be right back, love.”

She returned a few minutes later with an armful of devices, requisitioned from medical ships around the galaxy. Calibrating one, she pressed the tip to your neck and injected you with a compound that should heat your core from the inside, slowly increase the temperature of your body until it returned to its normal, healthy state.

Next, she wrapped your hands and feet with soft Trilad bandages. Once sealed, they dissolved any frozen dead skin and would promote healing and regeneration of the tissue. The Master sat by the bathtub and monitored your condition in the hours that followed, never once moving from your side until your eyes finally flickered open.

You opened your mouth to speak but The Master silenced you with a sharp glance. “Don’t. You’re very weak. Can you swallow? Blink once for yes, twice for no.”

One blink. Good. She grabbed a flask from nearby and twisted the cap off. The steam rose, the sweet and sticky scent of the warm syrup inside cloying. She had always hated this concoction as a child but there was no denying that it was one of the most effective cure-alls that she’d ever come across.

She supported your neck with one hand and brought the flask to your lips with the other. You closed your eyes as the liquid dripped down your throat, a little of the tension in your muscles easing as it soothed your throat.

“That’s good,” she muttered, stroking your skin as you continued to drink. When you were finished, she set the flask aside and wiped your lips with her thumb, guilt churning in her stomach as you smiled up at her.

The Master turned away, unable to take your gratitude when it was her fault you’d been stuck out there for so long, but you reached for her hand and her attention immediately snapped back. “What’s wrong?”

It took a few attempts to find your voice, and when you finally did it still came out hoarse. “Thank you. For saving me.”

“Well, if you weren’t so stupid, I wouldn’t have to save you, would I?”

“I tried to find the TARDIS. I got lost.”

“Obviously.” You flinched at the sharp tone and The Master shook herself. Pushing down the guilt and anger that she felt towards herself, hiding it away in the corner of her mind where the raging fire burned, a constant reminder of how well she screwed things up, of her own failings and fears, she ignored it all and smiled tightly at you. “It doesn’t matter. You’re okay now. That’s what’s important.”

You squeezed her hand and sank back into the warm water. You stayed that way for a few minutes before your forehead crumpled in a frown. Opening your eyes, you asked, “Why am I tied up?”

“Didn’t want you to drown.”

“Right.” Apparently too tired to pursue that further, you looked to The Master and asked, “When can I leave the bath? I’m starting to go wrinkly.”

She scanned you with one of the medical devices by her side and hummed. “Your core temperature is almost back up to normal and your blood oxygen level reads stable. Another ten minutes and I’ll move you to the bedroom.”

“It’s not your fault.”

The Master glanced up from the readings and frowned. “Why would I ever think that? You were the one that got yourself caught up in a blizzard. It’s not my fault you’re not strong enough to survive in that.”

You broke her gaze first, staring down at the ripples of water as you moved your fingers beneath the surface. “Yeah,” you acquiesced, a strangely peaceful smile on your face as if you were in on a joke she missed. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Of course I am.” The Master rose to her feet and hesitated before leaning down to press a kiss to the top of your head. She ignored the way your smile grew wider, definitely ignored the tingle in her chest and the warmth on her cheeks and muttered, “I’ll be back in ten minutes to help you out. Don’t go anywhere.”

“How can I? I’m a little tied up, remember?”

She simply smirked in response.


End file.
